Description:
Relationships between genes and social behavior have historically been viewed as a one-way street, with genes in control. Research in social genomics has begun to challenge this view by discovering broad alterations in the expression of genes across differing socio-environmental conditions. This talk will summarize the emerging field of social genomics and its efforts to identify the types of genes subject to social regulation, the psychological and biological signaling pathways mediating such effects, and the genetic polymorphisms that modify their impact across individuals. Humans appear to have evolved distinct gene regulation regimes to capitalize on the changing threats and affordances associated with sociality. Regardless of how well these adaptations may have served us during the Pleistocene, they now create a deep molecular connection between our personal environmental histories and the cellular and molecular processes that shape our future health and behavioral trajectories.